cleughs yonder they are thick
as blackcocks in August," cried the Major impatiently.

We pushed into the swirling waters and were presently running free,
sending the spurling spray flying on both sides of the boat. The wind came
on to blow pretty hard and the leaky boat began to fill, so that we were
hard put to it to keep from sinking. The three brothers were quite used to
making the trip in foul weather, but on the Prince's account were now much
distressed. To show his contempt for danger, the royal wanderer sang a
lively Erse song. The Macleods landed us at Glam, and led the way to a
wretched hovel recently erected by some shepherds. Here we dined on
broiled kid, butter, cream, and oaten bread.

I slept round the clock, and awoke once more a sound man to see the Prince
roasting the heart of the kid on an iron spit. Throughout the day we
played with a greasy pack of cards to pass the time. About sundown Creagh
joined us, Macdonald having stayed on Skye to keep watch on any suspicious
activity of the clan militia or the dragoons. Raasay's clansmen,
ostensibly engaged in fishing, dotted the shore of the little island to
give warning of the approach of any boats. To make our leader's safety
more certain, the two proscribed brothers took turns with Creagh and me in
doing sentinel duty at the end of the path leading to the sheep hut.

At the desire of the Prince--and how much more at mine!--we ventured up to
the great house that night to meet the ladies, extraordinary precautions
having been taken by Raasay to prevent the possibility of any surprise.
Indeed, so long as the Prince was in their care, Raasay and his brothers
were as anxious as the proverbial hen with the one chick. Doubtless they
felt that should he be captured while on the island the reputation of the
house would be forever blasted. And this is the most remarkable fact of
Charles Edward Stuart's romantic history; that in all the months of his
wandering, reposing confidence as he was forced to do in hundreds of
different persons, many of them mere gillies and some of them little
better than freebooters, it never seems to have occurred to one of these
shag-headed Gaels to earn an immense fortune by giving him up.

My heart beat a tattoo against my ribs as I followed the Prince and Raasay
to the drawing-room where his sister and Miss Macdonald awaited us. Eight
months had passed since last I had seen my love; eight months of battle,
of hairbreadth escapes, a